Trump Facing GOP Criticism On Vaccines As They're Harder To Get

Topline

The shakeup at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has raised new concerns about the agency’s vaccine oversight under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—a prolific vaccine critic—from some Republicans amid a rise in COVID-19 cases and new federal regulations limiting vaccine availability.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a cabinet meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Cabinet Room of the White House on August 26, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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Key Facts

The latest fallout from the CDC’s controversial handling of longstanding vaccine policy came Wednesday, with the White House’s firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez and subsequent resignations of several top CDC officials, including chief medical officer Debra Houry, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Daniel Jernigan, and director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Demetre Daskalakis.

The shakeup coincides with tightened restrictions on who can receive the COVID-19 vaccine, prompting major pharmacies CVS and Walgreens to restrict vaccinations, with CVS saying Friday the vaccine was only available in 13 states, plus Washington, D.C., to people with a prescription, citing “the current regulatory environment,” The New York Times reported.

Positive COVID-19 diagnoses are up 11.2% for the week ending Aug. 23, according to the CDC, while the CDC estimates that infections are growing or likely growing in 31 states, including New York, where hospitalizations remain low but some medical providers have said they’ve seen an uptick in inquiries from patients with symptoms, according to The New York Times.

The CDC officials who resigned this week said their decisions were directly related to their concerns surrounding the agency’s handling of vaccines: Monarez told former acting CDC director Dr. Richard Besser she was terminated, in part, for refusing to “rubber stamp” future recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which makes vaccine recommendations to the CDC, Besser told the Wall Street Journal.

Jernigan said he resigned after he was forced to work with vaccine skeptic David Geier on a study assessing already-debunked between autism and vaccines, while Daskalakis alleged the ACIP wants to re-examine an FDA-approved RSV immunization and Houry said panel members want to change the recommendation that the hepatitis B vaccine be given at birth, they told The Washington Post.

What To Watch For

Responding to the leadership shakeup at the CDC, Republican Bill Cassidy, R-La.—a medical doctor and chair of the Senate health committee — called for the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice’s September meeting to be delayed to ensure “significant oversight.” Cassidy’s vote to confirm Kennedy was contingent on a promise to maintain existing vaccine recommendations. Any new recommendations made by the ACIP “should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership,” Cassidy told the Wall Street Journal. Kennedy replaced all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices earlier this year with some members who have criticized established federal vaccine policy.

Chief Critic

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was “alarmed” by Monarez’s firing and said her departure “has triggered the immediate resignation of four long-time experts at the agency, who will not be easily replaced, and who are respected worldwide.”

Tangent

Kennedy’s long history of spreading vaccine misinformation has created tension with agency personnel on multiple occasions this year. Kennedy has heavily criticized the use of the preservative thimerosal in vaccines, which has largely been removed from most vaccines, and his revamped ACIP voted during its first meeting in June to recommend against flu vaccinations that contain thimerosal. Kennedy also sparked backlash earlier this month among HHS employees by claiming public health officials “have not been honest” about COVID-19 vaccines in response to a shooting at the CDC’s Atlanta headquarters by a gunman who had criticized the COVID-19 vaccine. Dozens of HHS employees signed a letter denouncing Kennedy’s promotion of vaccine misinformation in the wake of the shooting, and Monarez wrote an op-ed expressing concerns about vaccine misinformation that she abandoned after it was significantly revised by HHS, Houry told the Washington Post.

Key Background

The White House announced Wednesday Monarez had been fired and replaced by deputy Health and Human Services Secretary Jim O’Neill. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday Monarez initially agreed with Kennedy’s request for her resignation, then reversed her position, telling multiple outlets, “the president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with this mission.” Monarez’s attorneys, Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, said in a statement she “has neither resigned nor yet been fired.” Zaid said Monarez was “targeted” by the Trump administration for refusing to “rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.” Kennedy declined to discuss Monarez or the resignations in an interview on Fox & Friends, but repeated his long-standing criticism of the agency.

Trump Facing GOP Criticism On Vaccines As They’re Harder To Get—And Covid Resurges